The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras, celebrated for its authentic performances of baroque and classical music. In 2018 the orchestra’s programme Monteverdi’s Italy: the Rise of Instrumental Music – created especially for Kilkenny – was among the highlights of the Festival, and we’re thrilled to welcome them back this year for An Evening with Handel and Friends, another unique programme exploring the vibrant musical scene in 18th-century London.

Nowhere else in Europe did concert life flourish in the 18th century as it did in London. Concerti grossi, the latest fashion from Italy, thrilled audiences, and while Handel was quick to embrace the new taste, writing wonderful concerti and bringing Italian opera to the stage, his contemporaries like Thomas Arne and William Hayes made equally masterful use of the new forms.

This rich programme, filled with virtuoso pieces and exuberant musical ideas, and led by acclaimed violinist Péter Barczi, captures the dynamism of Handel’s milieu while performing some of the finest works of the English Baroque.